Style rewind: Fashion tips inspired by the 1970s

December 03, 2015

At Danny P., we’re all about bridging the gap between age-old crafting tradition and forward-thinking design. In line with that philosophy, we present our Style Rewind series. We take inspiration from the forefathers of menswear and show you how to remix bygone looks to suit up in modern times.

So far, we've covered every decade from the 1900s to the 1960s. Let's close the series with the 1970s, the decade of fashion adventures that were sometimes, well, too adventurous.

Image source: http://goo.gl/ZZOgKX

No hats

Seriously. They lasted for decades, only to be beaten down. No one was wearing anything on their heads. Even sharply-dressed men like Paul Newman or Steve McQueen considered hats unnecessary, something which couldn't have happened a decade ago.

Image sources: https://goo.gl/H2bXMS, http://goo.gl/TPm2et

Luckily, hats didn't disappear for good. It's not that they're booming nowadays, but they're totally appropriate on most occasions (just don't forget to take it off when you enter a club, restaurant or any other indoor place). There are several trendsetters who proudly sport them.

Leisure suits

John Travolta has given us so many good movies that his other “achievement” can be easily forgotten -- after his smashing hit Saturday Night Fever, he helped popularize the so-called leisure suit.

Image source: https://goo.gl/bx9MEx

A plain white polyester suit with a wide collar, no tie (of course, you’d wear it in your leisure time, right?) and massive lapels were the key attributes of what's now often being referred to as “the fashion bomb”.

As you could have guessed, the bomb exploded rather quickly -- the leisure suit didn't even make it to the 1980s.

However, Google something like “John Travolta Saturday Night Fever Suit” and you get plenty of online stores selling his costume. Of course, people only buy it as party equipment, but that only confirms how big of an impact this weird piece of clothing had.

Look how relaxed they are :) Image source: http://goo.gl/Hy13rU

And then?

Well, we got kind of stuck here. No matter how much we want to tell you that the men's fashion of the 1970s was highly inspiring, the reality is that it wasn't. In fact, this decade was full of weird trends that didn't last for more than a few years.

However, we might be wrong.

What do you, personally, see as the best piece of clothing the 1970s brought to our wardrobes? Inspire us :)